FRIGHT CLUB

At age 9, Davis Ferrero is the envy of all his friends in school.

His parents, Heather and Tony Ferrero, are locking a rag-clad Davis and his 12-year-old brother Will in cages suspended from the ceiling of their Bonita Canyon home this weekend and are inviting all their friends and neighbors over to watch. Davis’ mom expects the line to wrap around the block.

“I’m going to say, ‘Don’t let them take me, help,’” Davis said. “I’m a prisoner.”

The Ferreros have turned their home into a roughly 2,000-square-foot haunted house with a “Pirates of the Caribbean” team. Guests at the macabre mansion walk through a 16-foot-tall skull to enter the house. Twin pirate ships with masts about 20 feet tall sit on the front lawn.

Will and Davis, who have seen the pirate-themed “Pirates” films more times than they can count, acted as technical advisors on the elaborate project, which involves special effects from three professional prop companies, numerous extended family members and about four months of planning.

“All my friends want to come over; they ask if they can be in it a lot,” Will said.

Three semi trucks filled with props were parked on the Ferrero’s street Thursday as crew members bustled across the lawn with props like a severed head on a stake and skeletons dressed in pirate garb. Crew members worked five to six hours a day for three days to erect the elaborate haunted house. A crew of more than 30 extended family members and friends works on Ferrero’s annual haunted house.

The family has hosted the spooky Halloween event each year for the past six years, except last year. Past themes have included Indiana Jones and Harry Potter.

John Pavlick, one of Tony Ferrero’s cousins, haseven gained a following for his scary haunted-house performances at the family’s haunted house.

“This year, I’m playing a drunken pirate firing a cannon on unsuspecting guests,” Pavlick said jokingly. “I’m happy because I don’t have to hide that I’m drinking.”

Pavlick played the villain Mola Ram from the film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” in a past Indiana Jones-themed Ferrero haunted house. The character rips out a still-beating heart from a man’s chest in one scene of the movie, which the Ferrero’s faithfully recreated faithfully.

“He (Pavlick) has a fan club,” Heather Ferrero said. “The last year we did it, people were like, ‘There he is, there he is.”

This year’s house includes a treasure room, a jail scene, a swamp and more. A “Davy Jones’ Locker” scene includes an 8-foot-tall anchor and a swimming skeleton.

“I think I overdid it this year,” said Tony Ferrero said, who sketched out elaborately planneds for this year’s house, and began shopping around for props months in advance. Planning began in June.

Some of the props come directly from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland, said Tony Ferrero’s sister, Linda Ferrero, who oversees the sound effects and music for the house haunted house.

“I think I even remember that one from when I was a little girl,” she said of one hook-handed, eye-patched pirate standing at the exit of the haunted house.

The two-night event began Friday and continues tonight. The house is open to the Ferrero’s neighbors and by invitation. Guest can make a charitable donation after having their pants scared off. The Ferreros are donating proceeds from this year’s event to the African Child Foundation, which helps orphans in Uganda. The Indiana Jones-themed haunted house in 2005 raised about $3,500 for Hurricane Katrina victims.